Books

The newest issue of The Star arrived in the mail and with it my reviews of good Catholic books for kids and grown-ups. Happy reading! I have my trusty companions for reading, writing, and meditating. 

Conference Raffle Books and Tidbits

Look what I won at the conference! Not one, not two, but THREE books! Thank YOU, Maria Riley! I've only read the first one so far and it's so well-written. Joshua is a newly adopted child in a family with two children already in the family and he struggles to believe he's loved as much as the other kids. The three kids get to time-travel back to the Nativity and get to experience how St. Joseph, foster-father of Jesus loves Him. Children will really connect with the saints in this series. 

I'm still not caught up on the conference videos because I've been working on pitches and proposals and polishing my manuscripts for submission. But here are some tidbits from the wonderful speakers. I hope you will discover some new authors and editors here that will help you on your own writing journey. A BIG THANK YOU to all the organizers and volunteers for making this possible.  

Powerful Not Preachy: Crafting a Story with a Message. Good stories are balanced between engaging both mind and heart. If a story is all heart, no mind, it can become sentimental. And the opposite, it can become more about an idea and the plot/characters can feel contrived to fit an agenda. Share truths, not propaganda. Powerful stories pose questions and explore them through character development. Trust your readers; they're allowed to come to a different conclusion than you, the writer. Let God work. Don't meddle. ~ Sister Allison. 

Publishing Industry Red Flags. Learn the different paths to publication. Have realistic expectations. Practice discernment. ~ Anjanette Barr, . It was good to listen to an agent. I've been thinking that once my historical is ship-shape, I might query agents again.

Instagram: So Much More than Likes or Follows. Use Instagram as an online business card. ~ Kate Frantz. This talk made me realize that I could try Instagram. I am visual and this medium would suit me.

Serious Popular Fiction. Calibrate the Mind to Reality. Remember Plato's example of people living in a cave, only see shadows. It's a false reality. Once they go outside, they see as things truly are. A well-calibrated mind is less prone to being deceived and is able to assess new ideas wisely. With stories we can both experience and reflect at the same time. We can judge the moral weight of an action. Serious fiction is fundamentally moral, not because it teaches morality, but rather creates experience of facing a moral dilemma. ~ G. M. Baker. This was one of the best talks that integrated writing with philosophy. Looking forward to reading his books.

Why the World Needs Catholic Romance Novels. Be countercultural, break stereotypes. ~ Gerri Bauer. I love romance and have toyed with a couple of ideas and this talk inspired me to revisit them.

Incorporating Biblical Themes into Fiction. We are authors of words...and Sacred Scripture is the inspired Word of God. Why not let the two intersect? Let the Bible inspire your fiction. Some topics to consider: sibling relationships, parent-child relationships, priesthood, purgatory, angels, sacrifice, chosen people, outcasts, barrenness/infertility, brokenness, healing. ~ Allison Ramirez. It's funny, but even as an atheist, I ended up incorporating some Biblical themes in my work because it's true.

Newsletter Marketing. A newsletter is the most stable and long-term marketing tool. Make it worth the reader's time. Be authentic. ~ Stephanie Landsem. I've been told this over and over to write a newsletter. Maybe this is the year I begin. I have loved Stephanie's historical fiction.

Author and Editor Relationships Panel. Editing is also where you allow another into the creative process. Education is an investment. Publisher brand should match your sensibility. Rebecca Martin, Colleen Pressprich, Michelle Buckman, Roseanna White, Marybeth Giltner. Really enjoyed listening to the publishing stories. 

Tips for Writing Your Nonfiction Book. Simplify. Evaluate your writing space, your commitment and fitness for writing, your writing itself. Write with Jesus! What is God's vision for me? If it's from God you will overcome all obstacles. Discern. What are your ruts, your killer thoughts? A big one is fear. It stops you from writing. So change your thoughts. Thoughts-->Action-->Behavior. When you are overwhelmed, PRAY! ~ Belinda Terro Mooney. I really loved these tips on pre-writing. 

I'll stop here. More tidbits later. Happy reading and writing. Look at these newlyweds in their cosy little home! Michael and I had a very rich Chef's Kiss dinner at New Realm last night. And we have leftovers. Yum! And it is because HE first loved us that we can even manage to love a little. A happy and blessed St. Valentine's Day to you and all yours. 

Reading

I discovered an amazing author/illustrator: Lauren Redniss. Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: a Tale of Love and Fallout is the story of the Curies told in a completely unique manner. Part history, part science, part love-story, part art-book, Redniss stitches together their story, their passion, the political climate, and the fallout at the end. The book is so beautifully designed with notes on how the art was made, why she chose the font she did, etc.  I loved how she captured the glow of radioactive elements. I remember my brother having one of those glow-in-the-dark watches. We had no idea that it was dangerous. The Curies didn't either. 

Her book on Thunder and Lightning: Weather, Past, Present, and Future is another gorgeous book. It is like no other weather book. I learned so many interesting bits of history I knew nothing about. I think this is the way all subjects should be taught--the science, literature, folklore, with beautiful art to set your imagination soaring. I had to restrain myself from sharing more pages of both these books. Go get a copy for yourself like I did.  

Our Lady's Bug by Michelle Shahid is an original retelling of the Legend of the Ladybug. In the Middle Ages, crops were being ravaged by aphids. When the farmers prayed to our Lady to intercede, she did and so this beautiful little beetle is named for her. Beautifully written and accompanied with classic artwork, this is a story children will enjoy for many years. I am so proud of Michelle for sticking with this project because finding art in the public domain was no easy task, especially to fit the story. I share some of my favorite pages and Michelle's storytelling voice fits perfectly with the art. This was a family project as well with two of Michelle's children making some of the art. Gabriel made the cover and Eva some of the interior spot art. One talented family! 

Remarkably You by Pat Zietlow Miller and Patrice Barton is a joyful book celebrating the uniqueness of each child. This is something we all know, yet I find it amazing that there are still people who continue to promote abortion and even infanticide. I wish all those people could read this book and lament over all the unique children that never got to live. 

Watercress by Andrea Wang and Jason Chin was such a lovely story about children born of immigrant parents. It's never easy being different than everybody else but with acceptance comes new appreciation of their heritage. I especially appreciated having a couple of scenes showing the painful parts that caused the parents to leave their homeland. And we say, never again, in this beautiful land. God bless America!

The Fox and Chick books by Sergio Ruzzier are such a delight. They reminded me of myself as a child and my very patient older friends. So were the picture books by Corey Tabor. Mel Fell occurs in the space of a few seconds, whereas Snail Crossing, as you can imagine, takes forever. I loved the layout of Mel Fell (sometimes you might fall down, down, down before you learn to fly up, up, up...) but in both these books, the illustrations capture so much humor. 

The Secret Code Inside You: All About Your DNA by Rajani LaRocca and Steven Salerno is such a jaunty little book with rhyming text, beautiful illustrations, and excellent backmatter. You can learn to extract DNA from a banana :) Again, the issue of how unique each of us is comes up. 

Force of Habit: the complete series by James Scott Bell was highly entertaining. We sure could use Sister Justicia in the Vatican. That last story totally showed how ridiculous the govt. mandates were during Covid.  

The Prophetic Voice of God: Learning to recognize the language of the Holy Spirit by Lana Vawser was a beautiful meditation on her own journey into prophecy and how to be more open and recognize His Voice and not be afraid to act upon it. I've always had a strong intuition and gut feelings about situations and over the years I've been able to recognize what's from God, what's just my own ego, and what's from the evil one. By the way, a wonderful companion to this book is Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide for Everyday Living by Fr. Timothy Gallagher. 

4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman was quite different than any other book on productivity because it asks you to recognize and accept your limitations. It was really a beautiful meditation on time itself and our relationship with it. It dovetailed beautifully with my faith, because how much I want to spend the remainder of my life doing God's will. I love "wasting" time with our dear Lord Jesus the same way I used to waste time with Michael when we were getting to know one another. When you love someone, time disappears. Anyway, since I'm pushing 60, I probably only have a thousand weeks left, if that. Life is short. It's a reminder to stay in a state of grace. Here's a quote from St. Augustine: If you pray well, you live well. If you live well, you die well. If you die well, all is well. And that's my goal. 

What About the Baby? Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction by Alice McDermott was a master class on writing. You must write what compels you with sincerity and honesty. Put your whole heart into it. There was advice on the mechanics but more importantly, examples from her own work and that of others to show what makes a compelling story. She recounts a little story about an old man and a dog, and how I want to tell it to everybody too! 

Art and Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto Fujimura is a meditation on why we have a need to create, to make. It is because we are made in the image and likeness of God, who is wildly creative. His thoughts on "Jesus wept" is so powerful along with His Body broken for our sake--to save us, redeem us, renew us. It fits so well with the Japanese concept of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is made even more beautiful repaired with gold. Christ's Tears are like that gold. His meditation on Mary anointing Jesus with the precious and fragrant nard is so rich. Consider that it is the only earthly thing our Lord took with Him to the Cross. What a gift! It's been a perfect little book for this Lenten journey.  

And that's all folks. What are some of the good books you've been reading?

December Tidbits on Music and Books

I love that December brings many feast days. We celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception with a High Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and look who decided to join me for practice! 

The day before, I learned that every year, the noon hour on Dec. 8th is the hour of grace. Our Lady pays special attention to our petitions and praises, so of course, I made a Holy Hour. I prayed especially for the church, the religious, and our choirs, for them to grow and lo and behold, when we were practicing a polyphonic version of Ave Maria, a young man came up to the loft because he knew the piece. He took the tenor line. I've never before have had prayers answered so quickly and have been so delighted.

At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel addresses her as "full of grace." The priest said that in Greek, it's "kecharitomene" and it's the past perfect participle of Greek noun charis = grace. It means it has always been so and continues to be so, ie, Mary has always existed in a state of grace from the moment of her conception and will do so for all eternity. She was preserved from all stain of original sin by the foreseen merits of Jesus Christ. That's the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and it makes so much sense because our dear Lord Jesus, like us in all things except sin, could not take his human nature from a creature tainted with sin. She is God's perfect creation. Ap. Fulton Sheen joked that nowadays everybody thinks they're immaculately conceived.

Grammar matters. LOL.

So it's nearly Gaudete Sunday--Rejoice! We are celebrating with a High Mass and potluck! Here are some books I've enjoyed. Maybe there's something in this round-up for the people in your lives. As for me, I need to buckle down and meet my December deadlines. O why, O why did I procrastinate so?

I didn't want to read My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son's Search for Home by Michael Brendan Dougherty because I've got daddy issues. I was heartbroken for the child Michael who didn't know his father, but I was so heartened to know that although he couldn't change the past, there was love and forgiveness going forward. A beautiful memoir. 

Bobo and Pup-Pup books by Viktor Madan and Nicola Slater are such a delight. These are graphic novels for the earliest readers and so full of joy and frustrations typical of 4-6 year-olds. Superbly crafted. I am looking forward to more stories of this pair. These books reminded me of my own Max and Midnight stories but also give me a way to think about them in script format. It's such fun experimenting.

Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief by Joseph Pearce is one of the best books I've read. You know I'm a sucker for conversion stories but even better are conversion stories of writers. Joseph Pearce is a wonderful writer, with a knack for choosing just the right details. This book has been at my bedside for several years because the ends notes are full of juicy bits and references for more books that I had to read. As soon as I finished the book, I went back to the beginning. Haha.

The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life by Lois Ehlert is such a delight to read. It's her memoir of the creative life and so inspiring to read. All children are creative--they will enjoy this book very much.

I'm in the middle of Philip Pullman's Daemon Voices--wonderful essays on writing. He's a good teacher and I have so much to learn. I've enjoyed his fiction very much too.

John Cleese's little book on Creativity needs no more words. It's short, sweet and funny.

Hamnet, a novel of the Plague by Maggie O'Farrell is historical fiction about Shakespeare's wife and household and the various relationships. It takes us from courtship to marriage to the arrival of the children and Hamnet's subsequent death. There's a chapter right in the middle about the journey of the flea (perhaps my favorite chapter). She's portrayed as the typical medieval peasant woman who has knowledge of herbs and too independent. Although not a fan of present tense third person, I enjoyed the story tremendously, and will be reading more of her.  

I'm also in the middle of The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr of the Children's Health Defense Fund on my kindle. How I wish this book didn't have to be written. Where to even begin? It reminds me of Hitler's Willing Executioners by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. Superbly researched. We've gone from focusing on health to focusing on being sick. We have a pill for everything because that's what makes money. We're seeing more and more chronic illnesses because we've been poisoned. How well I know this personally because I bought into the lies, and I studied this stuff. I was so naive to think science was in the service of the common good, but when I read about control groups being eliminated, doing dangerous drug studies on impoverished communities in Africa and Asia, bypassing peer review by contacting media, how can I ever trust anything that comes out of our institutions? This book shows how Big Pharma infiltrated the regulatory bodies that were responsible for protecting public health. There's no oversight. And whistleblowers have their funding cut off, their careers crushed. It's time to wake up and smell the stench of our medical-industrial-government complex. I hope and pray that justice will be served for the crimes these people have committed.    

And that's it for now, folks. I leave you with the glow of an evening reflected in the marsh. A blessed Advent to all.